England vs Pakistan

[Buzzo]

75-8

Game is fizzling out which is a shame. Atmosphere non existent.

It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of the game, as Butt would normally have to be interviewed...

[Dirk07]

i'm really saddened by this if not totally surprised

[Zapater]

All over, those Pakistani's were having a laugh. Swann gets a fiver getting Asif caught by the most bizarre circumstances.

[Neil Young]

Fraudster bribes. Bowler oversteps. Bookmaker pays out.

[Vermilion]

Those no balls are so obvious it's unreal, you can see them overstretching their leading leg to make sure it's over the line, bang.to.rights.

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

Wish i had thought of that,what an easy way to get 150k out of a paper.
Pakistan is corrupt.

[Tee]

Nothing surprises me about Pakistan. The cricket team is just a reflection of the Government and corruption is just the norm.

Time for some lifetime bans to be imposed, and the term 'lifetime' should be exactly that. No other deterrent for these 'begharats'. Shame on them.

[-V-]

I don't think it would be fair to give a lifetime ban to a young 18 year old just starting out in the game. Because from the sounds of the allegations its the captain Salman Butt who is giving him these instructions. Amir at his age is clearly being led astray by more senior players and you could understand a little that he is just doing what his captain is telling him to do.

Salman Butt is ****e anyway, if he's guilty he should be banished forever

[Scratch]

What's Akmal's involvement in this? Relaying messages from Butt to the bowlers? Or are the dropped catches also part of the enquiry?

[-V-]

Akmals involvement in this particular incident is supposed to be that he makes the signals for when this no balls happen by switching his gloves. A sort of reminder to the bowler.

BTW Its very easy for these guys to get involved in this stuff since alot of the younger ones are only earning £15-£20k per year for playing for Pak. No doubt they see that the england players are earning £150-£200k and this makes them do this stuff

[Tee]

Those dropped catches by Akmal in Australia are just so blatant now. Something must be done and I mean lifetime bans. And the lifetime ban must be that, lifetime. No appeal after 1 year or some crap like that. Weed out the corrupt ones now and allow Pakistan to start (another) rebuilding process. We have plenty of talent.

[Alex]

There was talk of the Test result being scratched. So that record 8th wicket stand would never have happened

[-V-]

From stephen moss' article in todays guardian-http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/31/pakistan-cricket-team-redemption


The longer-term challenge – tackling the institutionalised corruption in Pakistan cricket – is, of course, more complicated. But far from banning the players involved, I would try to understand why they did it (if indeed they did), give them a slap on the wrists, and offer them one last chance. This is partly because I believe in the possibility of redemption, partly because it would be criminal (sinful even) never to allow the 18-year-old Mohammad Amir to play Test cricket again, but also because the key to the problem is not the uniquely vicious or stupid nature of Pakistan's cricketers, it is the circumstances in which they have been forced to play.

The infrastructure of first-class cricket in Pakistan has always been shaky; now it is almost non-existent. Selection policies are unfathomable. Captains and players come and go with breathtaking speed. The life of the Pakistan cricketer can be nasty, brutish and short. Little wonder they take the money while they can. They are far less well paid than their English, Indian and Australian counterparts. In this series they will have been earning perhaps a tenth the amount of their rivals. How tempting it must be to bowl a no ball – something which will have little bearing on the overall match – for a substantial amount of money, more probably than they will earn for slogging away for five days against a well-paid, carefully honed team that has a battery of coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, video analysts and, no doubt, accountants to support it. This has been a series between the first world and the developing world, and is it any wonder that cracks have appeared in the team representing the latter? Pakistan have some immensely talented players, but they play in a vacuum; they are having to make it up for themselves as they go along.

Also, think about the psychology of this team. They have been on the road for months, in Australia and England, living in anonymous hotels, bored to death, surrounded by sycophants and bloodsuckers offering them gifts and money … and perhaps suggesting that if they don't take the easy option bad things might befall their families back home in Pakistan. Current and former England players, blessed with the stability and comparative riches of the game here, have rushed to judgment without knowing any of the true facts or trying to understand the pressures on the Pakistan players.

Pakistan currently play no home Tests because of the security situation in that country; they are a team of exiles, forced to carry on because world cricket only has nine Test-playing countries and can't afford to lose one, especially one with Pakistan's rich cricketing heritage. The roots of the game have withered in Pakistan, and this group of talented young players tour the world like cricket's equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters. They are cricketing mercenaries, and we should not be surprised if sometimes they act in that way.

So, the solution? Pakistan should take a cricketing time out. This is a team that represents a failing state, and both the state and the team need help. Set up a board of unimpeachable figures from Pakistan and world cricket to set about overhauling the game in Pakistan. Identify the best 50 cricketers in Pakistan and attach two of them to county sides in England and state teams in Australia, to embed them in the structure of world cricket. Let them play in the Indian Premier League – they are currently excluded – so they can share the largesse of the top cricketers in other countries.

Assume that for five years at least it will not be possible for visiting teams to tour Pakistan, so let them play "home" Tests in Sharjah and elsewhere in the Gulf, where a large population of migrant workers from Pakistan give them a base of support. The International Cricket Council (ICC) will have to underwrite all this, as well as starting to rebuild the domestic game in Pakistan. And give all past wrongdoers an amnesty. Yes, what they did was disgraceful, but special circumstances prevailed, and sadly professional sportsmen do not in general take a romantic view of sport. They are more interested in their bank balance than in beauty, put accumulation before aesthetics. It is we, the fans, who seek some grand narrative in sport, even a sort of spiritual salvation. Players just play, and happily usually play to win, since that guarantees them money and sporting longevity. When that breaks down – as in Pakistan, which no longer seems to do longevity when it comes to sporting careers and where losing can sometimes be more lucrative than winning – the rules of sport are turned upside down.

Rather than condemn and punish, let's try to understand and repair – the old liberal nostrum. Recognise the structural nature of the problem in Pakistan, let the past wrongdoers carry on playing, pay them properly so they aren't tempted by shady fixers, and integrate them into world cricket. What 18-year-old hasn't done something profoundly stupid? A single violation should surely not cost him what could be a magical career? His cricketing life has just begun; let him live it. Redeemed and with 600 Test wickets in 10 years' time, he can tell succeeding generations how close he came to destruction.

[Tee]

V, do you honestly think that would work though?

I agree that the whole Board and structure of the game out in Pakistan needs to be cleared out and renewed. BUT, the players must also take responsibility.

Personally I would love to see Imram Khan appointed as the Head of the PCB, but his political interests mean that is unlikely.

The problem is that we have a generation of corruption in the game, from the days of Wasim and Waqar this **** went on, and these new young players are just introduced into the same methods.

Maybe there is a way of forgiving and moving on, but I really would not know how or where to start so that Pakistan cricket can recover from this.

[Shaggy]

One of the reasons corruption in cricket is still ongoing is the fact the authorities have pussyfooted around it for so long. It has to be dealt with properly otherwise it'll continue. Lifetime bans.